Artifact Nine: Runquist Murals Research
Objective:
- Learn about the First Amendment to the Constitution and US obscenity law.
- Examine historical and current incidents of Censorship in the US and their relationship to public funding for the Arts.
- Learn about the National Endowment for the Arts.
- Explore the relationship of cultural values to free speech and tolerance.
Original Post:
This is final research in this term, I learned a lot of knowledge about art and values, include concept of art, food as art and digital art etc. However, I find that the topic in this week is more interesting and attractive than before. The public art is related to our daily life, and it located on everywhere, but people ignore the beauty of them. For instance, there are some mailboxes and parking meters painted in the downtown Eugene. I didn’t watch them carefully until yesterday I went to my math class. I noticed that there are not only one are painted, and their style is same. I cannot tell what they drew, because they are really abstract. The artwork that displayed outside and exhibit to public can consider as public art, and it has many different forms, not just painting.
In the weekly reading, the author explains that:
“Public art is artwork in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property, or whether it is acquired through public or private funding. Public art can be a sculpture, mural, manhole cover, paving pattern, lighting, seating, building façade, kiosk…” (Doss 2006).
The Runquist Murals are two good examples, the murals are located in the Knight Library, East and West stairwells. The titles of them are “Development of Arts” and “Development of Sciences” which painted by Albert (b. 1894) and Arthur Runquist (b.1891). They painted the murals around 1930s and established by WPA in 1935. “A Response to Two Murals is a collaboration between the Digital Scholarship Center and the students, staff, faculty and public of University of Oregon”.
Next I will talks about my personal experience when I first time to see these murals. The public art is everywhere but people always ignore them. I went to Knight Library every week but I don’t know there are two beautiful Murals located in the Library in the before. They are quite big but I never noticed them.
“Development of Sciences”
I found that this mural in the website is unclear, so I went to watch this piece mural carefully. We can find that these two murals have same structures, but different events in two of them. First In the mural above, it shows the process of science development. It includes eight different important periods of human development of sciences. There is a tree grow in the middle,and the person in the bottom who kowtow to viewers looks like the root of the tree. I think Runquist brother want to express the relationship between human being and nature. The author in the reading said ” Public art is seen as a solution to the problem of placelessness, especially in its ability to remedy social alienation and generate sense of civic and community identity” (Dose, 2006). That is public art, which need to spread knowledge and culture or have certain meaning.
Another mural named “Development of Arts” is located in the east stairwells. It has 8 panels and includes Earliest Primitive Period, Later Primitive Period, Greek Period, Medieval Period, Renaissance and modern times. The mural records the history of art development, which are important evidence for people to study about art history.
Both murals are located in the Library and exhibit to all people. These murals are the great example of public art. In the reading, the author said “public art is as diverse as the people who view it. As Becker remarks, public art is a “multifaceted” cultural arena that is “open to artists of all stripes, without predetermined rules or a mutually agreed upon critical language” (Dose, 2006). The public art is open to all the people and located in the public area.
Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf
Reflection:
(Rubber Duck in Hong Kong)
In the assignment, I learned what is public art and the public funding for the arts. The author said that “Public art includes sculptures, mural, memorials, monument, civic gateways, pocket parks, playgrounds, and outdoor performances” (Doss, 2006). The author also mentioned that the public art don’t have a specific definition because its range always changing. In this assignment, we mainly study the two Murals names “Development of arts”and “Development of sciences”. They located in the UO library, which supply for people to appreciate. they have nearly 80 years history. It already becomes the placemaking of UO Library. Just as the author said, public art has many forms. The picture above is a special one, because it can move and travel around the world. It is Rubber Duck, this picture is that it arrival at Hong Kong. Rubber Duck is really popular in the recent year due to its size. The purpose for the Rubber duck is to transfer happiness, so it is a typical public art.
This artifact is one of the most informative in the all artifacts because it is made in 1930s. It has long time history. For mural itself, there are 8 panels in each mural, and they talks about different stories in different historical period. I also learned about the National Endowment for the Arts.
Future Goal:
I think that I’m fall in love with mural, they are so beautiful. However, I will not only focus on murals but I will also pay more attention to other forms public arts. Public arts are really important to all the people, arts have big contribution to our society. Therefore, I will search more public art and observe them carefully.
artifact 1: Life Value Assessment
artifact 3: Is Food Art? Discussion
artifact 4: The Art of Personal Adornment
artifact 5: Aesthetics of Horror
artifact 6: Creativity Spirituality
artifact 7: Art, Technology and Games
artifact 8: Remixing Culture Discussion
artifact 9: Runquist Murals Research